Gildredge House

Gildredge House is a good all-through 4–16 academy free school within a single academy trust. Inspectors found pupils feel safe and well cared for, behave respectfully and learn in calm, orderly classrooms, with the school’s ASPIRE values and a strong sense of community evident across the school. The curriculum has been reshaped in most subjects, early years and early reading are strong, and personal development, careers education and attendance work are notable strengths. Leadership has driven rapid change and raised expectations, trustees hold leaders to account, and staff report a collaborative culture. Safeguarding is effective. However, the school’s assessment and assurance systems are not yet fully embedded, so leaders cannot always check precisely how well pupils are learning. In some lessons, learning is not adapted well enough to gaps in pupils’ knowledge and skills, including in writing, meaning some pupils do not achieve as well as they could. This was the school’s first routine inspection since the COVID-19 pandemic, and under the current framework no overall effectiveness grade was awarded.

Strengths

• Pupils feel safe, cared for and respected.
• Calm, orderly classrooms support positive learning.
• A strong behaviour culture helps pupils do the right thing.
• Early years provision nurtures curiosity and strong early reading.
• A love of reading is promoted across the school.
• Personal development teaches health, wellbeing, relationships and online safety well.
• Careers education is well developed and inspires aspirational plans.
• Curriculum concepts are carefully sequenced in most subjects.
• Leaders have increased EBacc uptake and primary language expertise.
• SEND strategies are set out precisely and mostly used effectively.
• Attendance work is tenacious and closely supports families.
• Trustees hold leaders to account and staff value the collaborative culture.
• Safeguarding arrangements are effective.

Areas for Improvement

• Assessment and assurance approaches to check pupils’ learning are not fully developed or embedded.
• Learning is not consistently adapted to gaps in pupils’ knowledge and skills.
• Some pupils do not learn as well as they could because teaching is not consistently effective.
• Writing support is not always precise enough, leading to variability in pupils’ writing.
• The school has not fully refined how it evaluates the impact of its work on pupils’ learning and development.
• Where curriculum content is new, checks on what pupils have learned are not precise enough.

Admissions: local authority offers data from the Department for Education. A school is oversubscribed when at least 5% of the families who put it first were not offered a place, and undersubscribed when everyone who put it first got in but 10% or more of its places were unfilled in the Department's school capacity survey (the latest survey is used for entry years it does not cover). Places: Department for Education, School capacity, from local authorities' annual survey as at 1 May. Each year is the one the school year ends in (2025 is 2024–25); the survey was not run in 2020. Places include sixth form places. Forecasts are the local authority's own for the school's planning area, an area it uses to plan places that is not the school's catchment area. The forecast starts from a head count in 2025; the dashed line is the Department's estimate of places in that area, including those the authority has firm plans for. Planned places are cumulative, and only those with firm plans are counted.

In 2024–25 pupils at Gildredge House attended 93.7% of sessions (the national figure for secondary schools was 91.6%). 15.0% of pupils were persistently absent, missing at least one session in ten (nationally 23.4%).

Sessions missed

Pupils persistently absent

Source: Department for Education, Pupil absence in schools in England. Each year is the one the school year ends in (2025 is 2024/25). Persistent absence means missing 10% or more of sessions; severe absence means 50% or more. No figures were published for 2019/20.

In 2024–25, 4.7% of pupils at Gildredge House were suspended at least once (nationally 7.3%). No pupils were permanently excluded.

Pupils suspended at least once

Source: Department for Education, Suspensions and permanent exclusions in England. Each year is the one the school year ends in (2025 is 2024/25). A pupil can be suspended more than once, so suspensions per 100 pupils can be higher than the share of pupils suspended. Very small numbers are hidden by the DfE. Exclusion figures dropped in 2020 and 2021 because of school closures.

In 2025–26 Gildredge House had 20.2 pupils for each teacher (the national figure for secondary schools was 16.7). Of its teachers in 2024–25, 16.4% were no longer at the school a year later (nationally 14.1%).

Pupils per teacher

Teachers who left the school within a year

Source: Department for Education, School workforce in England. Each year is the one the school year ends in (2025 is 2024/25). Pupils per teacher counts full-time-equivalent pupils and teachers. Turnover is the share of a year's teachers (full-time equivalent) who were not at the school the following year, whether they moved to another school or left state-funded teaching. Turnover and sickness figures run one year behind the ratios. Sick leave is the share of teachers who took at least one day in the year, so it swings widely at small schools, where a few teachers can make it 0% or 100%. The national figures are for all state schools of the same type.

In 2025–26, 17.0% of pupils at Gildredge House were on SEN support (nationally 14.1%) and 1.5% had an education, health and care (EHC) plan (nationally 3.5%).

Pupils by main type of need

Source: Department for Education, Special educational needs in England (the 2025–26 school census). SEN support is extra help in school without an EHC plan. National figures are for all state-funded secondary schools. Counts are as published, with small numbers not hidden.

In 2024–25 Gildredge House received £6,477 and spent £7,007 for each of its 1,168 pupils. It ended the year with reserves of £725,000 (£621 per pupil).

Income per pupil

Spending per pupil

Source: Department for Education, Financial Benchmarking and Insights Tool. Each year is the one the financial year ends in (2024 is 2023–24). Academy figures include a share of the trust's central services, shared out by pupil numbers, and are rounded to the nearest £1,000. Premises costs were defined differently from 2024, so compare them across that gap with care.

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What is Gildredge House's Ofsted rating?

The latest Ofsted rating for Gildredge House is Good, from an inspection in November 2024.

When was Gildredge House last inspected by Ofsted?

Gildredge House was last inspected in November 2024.

How many pupils does Gildredge House have?

Gildredge House has 1,169 pupils on roll.

What age range does Gildredge House cover?

Gildredge House for pupils aged 4 to 16.

What are Gildredge House's GCSE results?

In 2026 its average Attainment 8 score was 48.9, and 50% of pupils achieved grade 5 or above in both English and maths GCSE.

What are Gildredge House's SATs (KS2) results?

In 2025, 60% of Year 6 pupils met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths.

Where is Gildredge House?

Gildredge House is at Compton Place Road, Eastbourne, East Sussex, BN20 8AB.